An independent pipeline expert has concluded that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ environmental assessment (EA) of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is insufficient and fails to account for the impact on tribal members, prompting the Standing Rock Sioux to demand that the federal agency “revisit” its approval of the controversial project.
The review, commissioned by the tribe, found that the Army Corps’ EA “understates the risk of pipeline failure and related oil release from this pipeline impacting Lake Oahe and the Missouri River,” determined (pdf) Richard Kuprewicz, a pipeline engineer with the consulting firm Accufacts, Inc..
Earthjustice, which is representing the Standing Rock Sioux in its litigation against the Corps, outlined additional “areas of deficiency” identified in the review:
- Shoddy pipeline construction
- The risks posed by landslides were underestimated
- Lack of proper safety constructions to contain spills
- Failure to review impact to residents and environment downstream of the site
- A risk review of industry spills and containment at similar sites that document problematic regulatory oversight of the industry in North Dakota
In a letter (pdf) sent late last week to Jo-Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Standing Rock Sioux chairman Dave Archambault II presents Kuprewicz’s findings in contrast to the EA’s determination that building a pipeline across Lake Oahe “will not affect members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe or the Tribal reservation.”
“Mr. Kuprewicz’s findings reflect the common sense point that was somehow lost in the Final Environmental Analysis—that pipelines leak, and that when they do so there are often devastating consequences, particularly when the leak contaminates water.”
—Dave Archambault II, Standing Rock Sioux
The review, he said, “underscores one of the fundamental deficiencies of the Final Environmental Assessment—it assumes, without foundation, that placing a massive oil pipeline just upstream from the Reservation presents no risk to the Tribe.
Alternately, “Mr. Kuprewicz’s findings reflect the common sense point that was somehow lost in the Final Environmental Analysis—that pipelines leak, and that when they do so there are often devastating consequences, particularly when the leak contaminates water,” he noted.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT